Walking Dead Producer Gale Anne Hurd on Rick Becoming the New Shane & Big Character Decisions this Season

Daryl doesn't want to see Rick become unrelentingly brutal.

Warning: Full spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 5 to date follow...The Walking Dead's fifth season is nearing its midseason finale, and if the show's history is anything to judge by, they'll pull out all of the stops. We had the opportunity to speak with The Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd recently about what we can expect from what is being touted as a hugely significant episode before the break (stay tuned for more on that!). During the course of our conversation, we touched on some of the character shifts, decisions, and mistakes we've seen over the last several episodes.

Is Rick the New Shane?:

It's been interesting to watch how all of these characters seem to take turns being either the voice of reason or the hard-liner. In "Crossed" Daryl was tasked with pulling Rick back from taking a violent and brutal course of action in order to rescue Carol and Beth. In the episode prior, he'd stopped Carol from shooting Noah. While Rick and Carol now seem to have come to an understanding about just how ruthless one must be in this world, Daryl is becoming an advocate for caution and restraint.

"That's the journey of these characters," Hurd said when asked if we can expect this to become the cruxthe dynamic between Daryl and Rick. With Daryl as the character who says, 'Maybe we don't have to be so violent.'

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"They're changed by what has happened to them and what they've had to do," the producer added. "At this point I think Rick is like, 'I've been giving people the benefit of the doubt for a very long time, and look how it's turned out.'"

A fair point.

"It's funny," Hurd reflected. "Because of course it was Shane's position in the first and second seasons: you do what you need to do to protect your family. Daryl I think at this point doesn't want to see Rick become unrelentingly brutal."

Andrew Lincoln said that he felt that Rick and Shane would have come to an accord by now during The Walking Dead NYCC panel, and it does feel that way.

"Yes," the producer confirmed when asked if it seemed that way to her. "I think that's exemplified by these kinds of actions."

Why Did Sasha DO that?:

To Rick's point, it's not only a impossible to trust strangers, but it's a challenge to trust your own people not to make stupid mistakes that make everyone vulnerable. Sasha's decision at the close of the episode to not only untie their prisoner, but lead him to a window and turn her back to him was somewhat shocking given what she's been through recently, and what they've learned about people who appear to be benevolent on the exterior.

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"I think what she's trying to do is embody all that was good in Bob," Hurd said when asked if a character would allow themselves to become that vulnerable at this stage. "His death essentially would have been in vain if she hadn't taken something from that. All of their last moments together as he was dying were really about that. He'd really traveled so far from someone who didn't want to connect with people and felt that whenever he joined a group he was almost an unlucky charm in that he would be the last one standing. And yet he was able, with their relationship, to get through that. I think he wanted that to be his legacy to her."

As a viewer, one often finds themselves shouting "What are you doing!?!" at the screen in moments when a character makes a critical error, as Sasha did.

"I know, I know, I know," Hurd laughed in agreement. "But he really knew how to play her like a violin, because if you find that someone does have compassion and wants to do the right thing, that makes that person vulnerable. But at the same time, without that, you've lost your humanity completely."

Would Abraham Be Justified if He'd Killed Eugene?:

For many viewers, one of the most entertaining aspects of The Walking Dead is playing the "I judge your zombie apocalypse" game. In other words, we ask ourselves if the characters have made the right decisions and challenge ourselves to figure out what we would do in a similar situation. That's one of the reasons that the Telltale Walking Dead games have been/were embraced by fans.

When Abraham nearly killed Eugene upon the discovery that he'd been lying about a cure, some may have found his actions to be justified. Eugene had selfishly gotten several people killed on a wild goose chase and given others false hope when they could have been looking for another way to survive.

"I think at that point you have become no better than the hunters," Hurd reflected when asked if Abraham's actions were to some degree understandable. "Eugene didn't personally pull the trigger. He had a different approach to self-preservation, and yes, it certainly had terrible consequences. But that's what happens to cowards, is that they don't step up; they lie. They let other people fight their battles for them. At the same time, does a coward deserve to die in cold blood? That's I think when you cross the line into -- given Abraham's history of violence and the fact that his wife took their kids away from him, even though he was avenging what happened to them, shows that there would have been no purpose had he succeeded."

Dr. Eugene talks about Season 5 & attending a "death dinner" for a beloved character in the video below...who could it be?Stay tuned for more from our conversation with Hurd.

Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.